The inputs had specifically mentioned that the terrorists were targeting Buddhist temples in reaction to alleged atrocities on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
The Intelligence Bureau of India had warned Bihar govt twice in the last three months that Bodh Gaya was on the hit list of terrorist groups. Even a fortnight back, the IB had sent sketches of two suspects but the police could not track the duo.
The Bihar government was repeatedly warned by the Centre about the terror threat to the Mahabodhi temple but the state failed to take effective security measures.
A team of Delhi Police is likely to visit Bihar's Bodh Gaya town to share information provided by the Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists who had earlier planned an attack on the temple, police said on Sunday.
"We will be sending a team to Bodh Gaya to share the information provided by the arrested IM operatives who had planned to carry out serial blasts in the temple," a senior Delhi Police officer said.The officer added that they had alerted intelligence agencies and Bihar Police about a possible terror attack in the state.
" We had shared the inputs with intelligence agencies and Bihar Police about a possible terror attack," the police officer said.According to police, the IM operatives had informed them that they had spent 15 days in Bihar doing a recce of the temple.
In 2012, Delhi Police had busted a group of IM terrorists which carried out serial blasts in Pune. They had planned similar attacks in Delhi and Bodh Gaya too.
The arrested IM terrorists in the Pune blast case were identified as Syed Makbul, Irfan, Imran and Asad.
Police suspected Indian Mujahedeen (IM) Terrorists who shattered the peace of the world-renowned Mahabodhi temple and surrounding pilgrim spots in Bodhgaya early 7th July Sunday, setting off nine blasts in 30 minutes despite numerous intelligence alerts of such an attack.
And this was the first terrorist act in Bihar and the state was neither prepared nor does it have expertise to deal with such blasts. Even police officials believed that terrorists would not carry out blasts in the state which had turned into a preferred route for terrorists to move to Mumbai and other places from Nepal or Bangladesh. It was believed that Bihar provided safe passage for terrorists and they would not like to invite extra police attention by triggering blasts.
The blasts left two persons injured. While no group has owned responsibility, the home-grown Indian Mujahideen (IM) has once again emerged as the main suspect.
“The string of bombings seems like a terror attack,” minister of state for home affairs RPN Singh said, adding: “If there were shortcomings in following up the (intelligence) alerts, it will be looked into.”
Preliminary reports suggested the bombs — small LPG cylinders with timers — malfunctioned due to damp conditions.
They may have been timed to go off at prayer time. But with the glitch and with attendance thin, the damage was minimal.
The development also seemed to indicate the use of ammonium nitrate as the chemical tends to malfunction in humid or damp conditions, sources said.
The Mahabodhi temple had been on the watch-list of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing since October.
Arrested IM operative Syed Maqbool had last year admitted to recceing the area as part of plans to target the shrine to avenge atrocities on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Bodhgaya draws lakhs of Buddhist pilgrims from Myanmar and elsewhere in Asia.
There were at least three alerts from the IB between October and July and inputs from the Delhi and Kolkata Police and National intelligence Agency (NIA).
Following the alerts last year, the state administration had replaced the district police guards with special task force personnel.
Last month, the Bihar Police had inducted an additional battalion with dog and bomb squads. A specific alert for Bodh Gaya last month that also prompted a mock drill and security review.
Additional director general of police (law and order) SK Bhardwaj admitted headquarters had been receiving specific inputs from central agencies since August.
According to DGP Abhayanand, four bombs went off at the temple complex - including two under the Mahabodhi tree that left a Tibetan monk and a pilgrim from Myanmar injured - three around the Karmapa monastery complex 1.5 km to the west, one adjacent to the 80-foot Buddha statue and another on a UP roadways bus.
Three bombs were found and defused. The explosions were all within a 2-km radius and in quick succession between 5.30am and 6am. The sanctum sanctorum and Mahabodi tree, under which Buddha gained enlightenment in 531 BC, did not suffer any damage.
By evening, security had been tightened and the temple sanitised. With no night vision provisions, CCTVs in the temple complex failed to record any footage.Rain and bad weather delayed central teams from reaching Patna.
Even before the agencies investigating the Mahabodhi Complex serial blasts have begun their work, the polarisers have successfully finished their task.
This should please the dark hearts who planted the bombs. They failed to inflict much damage in terms of human lives, but they would be happy to note that they have damaged the sanity of the discourse from here on.
Within hours of the incident, one side reached the conclusion that the blasts were in retaliation against the persecution of Muslims in Myanmar. The other warned non-BJP states to be careful while linking this incident to 2014 elections.
The attack on a place of worship, Bihar's only tourist destination, has become just another whip to beat one another. Rather quickly.
The natural progression is perfectly in place. The Prime Minister has condemned the incident, framing his condemnation quite clumsily. The Home Minister has declared it a terrorist act. The chief minister of Bihar has visited the site while forensic teams waited for him and his team to walk all over the crime scene. Opposition leaders followed suit.
In the coming days, we will see more tough talk, some more sick talk and another bloody incident will gradually slip off our mind. What we'll be left with is a few more radicalised minds, in absence of a closure.
Congress' rabble-rousers led by Digvijaya Singh want people to believe that BJP benefits, so... you get the drift. The BJP has already begun using this in reference to the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case in Gujarat, on the flimsy pretext of defending the Intelligence Bureau.
It is true that there were specific alerts about a possible attack on the Buddhist shrine. The Indian IB had named the two suspects and sent their sketches to Bihar Police saying the two have entered Patna and they were likely to attack a place of worship. This has led many to presume that police were not following the lead and that the state machinery could have prevented this.
But retrospective wisdom of could-have, should-have hasn't solved anything. All that matters now is what we can do, should do and must do.
And that is no rocket science. To begin with, we should treat it as a criminal, a terrorist act. That we can catch terrorists has also been proven. We need to get them to the court of law. And we must not politicise it.
That's the weakness the enemies of peace exploit. This is not the first such incident. From Mecca Masjid to Ajmer to Varanasi, we have seen a series of serial blasts. Almost all of them have ended in massive politicisation and public distrust. So much that the findings of the investigating agencies have become suspect. That makes us the ideal, easy target. That agencies are sometimes told to find what's not there further compounds it.
While the BJP takes the brunt of victimising the minority, the Congress itself has compounded probes in many cases. Cops pick up people from a community and dump them in jails until their innocence is proved. The whole premise of innocent till proven guilty goes upside down. In more than one case, police have arrested two sets of people for one crime, and both have been languishing without bail. Political parties use these cases to polarise. The two poles of the polity benefit from this polarisation. Truth becomes the casualty.
Now, the Rohingya angle. The incidents in Burma saw a violent reaction in India, followed by mass exodus of Northeasterners from metropolises such as Mumbai and Bangalore. It was a clash between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma, and people who bore the brunt were not even Buddhists. The protests died down. All was well.
But what did the government do after that? If a section of Indian Muslims were angry and hurt,question is here, did the government do anything about their hurt? Or did it leave it open?
The analysis there is if Indian peoples told our own people that India does not support the persecution of Muslims anywhere in the world. That the Rohingya-Buddhist clashes are Burma's problems. That Burmese Buddhists are Burmese, and Indian Buddhists and non-Buddhists cannot do much about them. That India condemns killings of Muslims not just in Burma but elsewhere and cannot intervene in another country's affairs.
More Muslims are massacred in Pakistan in a day, than those in Burma. Syria, Libya, Iraq and so on are more examples. To top that, there are enemies using Gujarat and other riots in India to radicalise minds here. Of Muslims & Hindus.
What are the so-called Internet Hindus, who resort to verbal violence online? Their radicalisation may also end up in physical violence offline. There are youth misguided by vile guides. These minds are ready to play the game of the enemy.
The hurt, internal or external, needs to be addressed and India governments need to launch their own initiatives to counter radicalisation of all kinds. It needs to show that democracy gives them power to change things, that violence is no match to democracy. Source : India Today/Hindustan Times/TOI
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